“The
worsening situation in Ferguson is deeply troubling, and does not
represent who we are as Missourians or as Americans. While we all
respect the solemn responsibility of our law enforcement officers to
protect the public, we must also safeguard the rights of Missourians to
peaceably assemble and the rights of the press to report on matters of
public concern.

“I
have been closely monitoring the situation and will continue to be in
communication with local leaders, and I will be in north St. Louis
County tomorrow.
As Governor, I am committed to ensuring the pain of last weekend’s
tragedy does not continue to be compounded by this ongoing crisis. Once
again, I ask that members of the community demonstrate patience and calm
while the investigation continues, and I urge law enforcement agencies
to keep the peace and respect the rights of residents and the press
during this difficult time.”

Who Killed Michael Brown?

Jason Parham

Yesterday,
the Ferguson, Mo. police department announced that it would not release
the name of the officer who shot and killed unarmed 18-year-old Michael
Brown on Saturday. "The value of releasing the name is far outweighed
by the risk of harm to the officer and his family," said Thomas Jackson, chief of the Ferguson police department.

We
disagree. We believe Brown's family, and the public at large, have the
right to know the name of the man who killed their son. For this reason,
we're asking readers who know the identity of the officer to share it
with us, either below this post or over email.If we can confirm a name, we will publish it ourselves. We are looking for legitimate information and tips, not jokes or false names.

We
want to publish the officer's name because we believe that transparency
is the price of power, and that trust is earned and not demanded. The
people of Ferguson have been asked to trust the chief's decision not to
release the officer's name, but why should they? The Ferguson police
department has not earned the trust of the citizens in whose name it
operates and with whose power it is invested. Mike Brown was asked to
trust the police, and he was utterly failed. For trust to
exist—for it to be built—there must be absolute accountability. Every
bullet must be explicable; every life must be answerable.

The
name of one officer has already circulated on social media, over the
protestations of Ferguson police. If this is the wrong name, the
solution is to provide the right one—not to put down a visor, hold up a
shield, and retreat further into silence and concealment.

Forget
that Michael Brown should have begun coursework at Vatterott College
this week. Forget that he was known for his kind heart and gentle
spirit—Big Mike, they called him. Forget that he was unarmed and
pleaded, hands above his head, for the officer not to shoot him. Forget
that his body lay in the street surrounded by police for hours, as
family and community members stood helpless. Forget that we have been
here before. That we have mourned and fought and cried our eyes red for
our very humanity. Forget, too, that we will be here again. Forget all
of this. A teenager is dead—gunned down in broad daylight by a man
employed to protect him. That alone should be enough.

"There is power in naming racism for what it is," Jesmyn Ward wrote in the New York Times,power in "shining a bright light, brighter than any torch or flashlight. A
thing as simple as naming it allows us to root it out of the darkness
and hushed conversation where it likes to breed like roaches. It makes
us acknowledge it. Confront it. And in confronting it, we rob it of some
of its dark pull. Its senseless, cold drag. When we speak, we assert
our human dignity. That is the worth of a word."

The Ferguson police department, clad in armor and rolling in military vehicles, is terrified of the people it serves. Gunning
down an unarmed, fleeing teen, and then hiding the name of the
triggerman, are the acts of an institution that is afraid. Its
cops believe they are victims; that Michael Brown's death is an
incident that happened to them. They have made it clear that the officer
who killed him is one of them, a representative of how the department acts in the world.

Michael Brown deserved better. So does his community; so does his family. If you know the name of his killer, share it with us. Let's shine a light.

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